Oh, you are subject of the Queen? So everyone feels a little bit proud. ‘Oh, I have the Queen.’ Not understanding what kind of tyranny happened under the British empire too. It is coming out. Sheykh Effendi, I remember he is saying, because he used to work for the United Nations, and he said that they ran a study and they found that the most merciful way, the most just way of government, was in the time of Kings, during the Monarchy. It’s not this modern times. And the most just amongst the Monarchs, they were the Ottomans. Everyone was an Ottoman. If you are a Jew, you are an Ottoman Jew, Christians is the same. You belong to that.

It was, like this or like that, you can say it was egalitarian. Like this or like that. It’s not full hundred percent. The Sultan’s wives, they are not his wives. Meaning that the Sultan is not there with his women there to set up a family. Even that luxury that we take for granted when we get married, we want to have a wife, set up house, that is not given to the Sultan. Like what Sultan Orhan Gazi said to his son, I believe if it’s not that, it is Sheykh Edebali advice saying that, ‘my son, from now on, you are the Sultan. Your time is not yours to spend any way that you want. Your life is not yours. Now it belongs to the ummat.’ So they were not marrying into family, setting up tribes, setting up – this has been in history and this is one of the major causes of conflict and war because of one family fighting against another family for generations and generations and generations. They did away with all of that. Only a few Sultan had real wives, the maqam of a wife. Sultan Suleyman the magnificent, and we know that history too, what happened after. So everyone was a property of the Sultan. The men and the women, they were properties of the Sultan. And the Sultan, is the property of Allah. So now you are rising above tribal politics, racial politics too.

Why it’s racial politics? If you find out in the Ottoman Court, it’s not one race, as is defined by the Ummawis and the Abbasids: Arabs, anyone who is non-Arabs, low class, second class, third class. They were not putting up Turkishness. You understand? There were so many different races, when the Americans were practicing slavery, in the 1800 when they went to the Ottoman lands and they saw an African Ottoman captain riding on a horse, and his subordinates was a white Albanian walking, it blew their minds away. They say, ‘how can this be?’ In fact, if i’m not wrong, the first pilot in the Ottoman time, they had that capability and technology, was also an African. African American that time they were not even considered humans.

When the young Turks who were influenced by the western philosophies and politics and they wanted to overhaul the system of Khilafat, they were looking to the French revolution as their role model. The French revolution was the beginning, like what Sheykh Maulana, Sheykh Effendi said, the beginning of the disaster. That was the time that Sheytan open the doors, he broke the dam and never stopping from that time until today. They were looking to the French Revolution. And the French revolutionaries they inflicted a lot of damage, then there were a counter revolutionary, they inflicted, and it went on and on. Because system that does not have Islam, it is just condemned to repeat their own failures. System that have Islam and is not taking Islam, is still condemned. Do you understand?

So the French revolutionaries, they had three things that they say, ‘this should be our principal: Equality, fraternity, liberty.’ Equality – egality. Fraternity – brotherhood. And liberty- freedom. And when the young turks, they took that call, they had all these three things. But the fourth they added, which was missing from this three things. What did they put? Justice. Justice. Where is this justice of the Ottomon. Where did they take it from? Nothing but from the Quran and from the Hadiths of the Prophet (asws). They had people of every tribe, of every race, of every nationality, of every religion. It was not your race or your religion that is going to bring you forward or to stop you. It is your merit. You understand? Your skills. Do you have the skills? Yes. Make it. Your religion, doesn’t matter. Because like what the khutba is saying, we are not here to build Utopia. We are here to have justice and to build a civilization. It’s enough. We should move on from, ‘oh you are different from me. You are different religion, different color.’ Finish. Close that page. We know we are different, now we need to continue. We need to build this world into a reflection, to pull Justice of Allah SWT now. Look into their laws, you will understand. This is a very huge topic that even the earlier Americans they took from the Ottomans and their laws. The system of federal government and state government is all taken from the Ottoman lands that were ruling it that way, that is unheard of during the time of the European, especially with Chritian European. You understand?

So many things that we take for granted now, it was already in place during the time of the Ottoman. Like what we are saying yesterday, they gave the right to little birds who are thirsty and hungry wolves that were in the mountain tops. When it snowed like this, they make it a law to go there and you have to give food to these wolves. That the Jews were saying, ‘we’d rather be ruled under the Turkish Turban than under the Catholic’s mitre, you know that hat that the pope wears. That Jews amongst themselves there are so many different sects of Judaism, that they found safety in the Ottoman land. Christians that were in conflict with one another, they found safety in the Ottoman land. Again, I’m not idealizing this, I’m making that is so perfect. I’m saying the system is set up, there are flaws, we are all humans, yes it happens,

Let me give you one example. The Holiest building, the Holiest site in Christianity is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Holy Sepulchre, it’s like you can say it’s a Holy tomb. Because that’s where they discovered, they say, the body of Isa (as), then after that he disappeared then he came back da..da..da..So that is supposed to be the holiest site. There was a Church that was built there. This is the same church that Umar Hz, and Hz Umar was known for what? Justice. He’s known to be very strict with the law. You cannot be just if you are not strict with the law. Do you understand? That Hz Umar, that he punished his own son who committed adultery, he was tricked by a Christian person and the punishment for that was to be whipped one hundred times. And the son was not too strong, and he died before the hundredth lash was given. They stopped and Hz Umar said, ‘don’t stop. Continue.’ He was watching. Do you think he doesn’t have a heart? Do you think Hz Umar is the one whose heart shook just by listening to the verses of the Quran, he doesn’t have a heart when he sees his son was being whipped? He said, ‘continue. Because maybe he’s not going to be punished in the hereafter if you continue.’ And they looked up to Hazreti Umar. There was a law of Hz Umar feeding the wolves. Because there’s this saying from Hz Umar, ‘if there is a hungry wolf on the other side of the Tigris river or the Euphrates during Umar’s reign, Umar is going to be questioned by Allah on the Day of Judgment why that wolf has gone hungry?’ And the Ottomans were taking that very seriously.

So, when Hazreti Umar conquered the Qudus, he did so many things there. He cleared up the Holiest place for Judaism that was made into a public toilet, a latrine, they were putting their waste there (the Christians were), and they stopped the Jews from coming to worship there. For a very long time, when Hazreti Umar entered, of course there were prophecies also, amongst the Jews and the Christians, what is going to happen, how the Qudus is going to be conquered too, and the Jews they see in Hazreti Umar, the laws and the strictness of Musa (as), and the Christians they see the humility of Isa (as) because Hazreti Umar, he didn’t want any possession, or anything, and he entered into Qudus, into Jerusalem, barefoot, wearing his Khirqa e-Sharif that is torn here, that is patched here, and just by that they were struck. They invited him to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He went inside. They invited him to pray inside. He said, ‘I’m not going to pray.’ Everybody thought, oh he’s not going to pray because he hated Christianity. He said, ‘no, because if I pray, later Muslims are going to turn this church into a masjid because I prayed here.’ He prayed outside. It was the same Hazreti Umar who came to that place, to the wailing wall they call it, the Hadrian’s wall, that is one of the last walls of the temple (they say temple, we say the masjid) that coming from all the time from Hazreti Suleyman (as), Hazreti Daud’s (as) time, and they go there to worship. And the Christians turned that into a toilet. And Hazreti Umar went there himself, going on his hands and knees, and he cleared up the place. And he asked the Jews to return. You understand?

And Hazreti Umar was known for what? For his laws. He put down so many rules, so many laws that is still standing today. Us reciting three ihlas, that is coming from Hazreti Umar. Praying twenty one raka’ats for terawih prayer, that is coming from Hazreti Umar, of course, ultimately from the Prophet (asws), but he made it into a public practice. And Sultan Suleyman, that so many they are saying maybe he is the greatest, that the west they are calling Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, because they like his jewels and his silks and his Palaces, that’s why they call him magnificent, but he’s not known as Sultan Suleyman the magnificent amongst the Ottoman, he is known as Qanuni Sultan Suleyman. Qanun, Canon, because he is known for his laws, setting down law. When there is law, you are given your right and you are protected by that law. Chrisitans, Jewish, Muslims, living in that time. It was very sophisticated. So here, we are not just talking about spirituality that we talked about yesterday that it was a high level of spirituality amongst the people and their culture in the Ottoman lands. Here we are talking about even the politics. You understand? Even their law. It is just saturated with justice and also spirituality. Because they are taking it from the Holy Prophet (asws).

Yeah, that was that time. It is inconceivable for us. Either we are going to get suspicious and we say, ‘oh you’re just romanticizing it,’ or if we see the reality, we say that it cannot be, how can such a people like this exist? They have such delicacy of spirit and such wisdom? Such innocence and also such experience. Like what Sheykh Effendi is saying, they can never get it, they can never understand Muslims, the one who can pull out the sword for the sake of Allah with no hatred in his heart. And he is going to make the most delicate Calligraphy and he is going to be the most gentle to the children. So that was the period. It wasn’t fifty years, it wasn’t a hundred years. You understand? It was hundreds of years. Six hundred years, seven hundred years, passed, we say at least. Understand, Islam is fourteen hundred years. The Ummawis they ruled for what? 150, 200 years? The Abbassids, more or less. Let’s give them four hundred years. For a thousand years, Islam was ruled under the Abbassids but with the Seljuks and with the Ottomans.

So you want to understand what justice is? Study those who have justice, the system, how did they go about it. How did they go about that. We are talking about the delicacy of the justice of the people that in their lowest times, when they were building a railroad connecting Istanbul to Medina to Mecca, to make it easier for the pilgrims, for the Hajis to travel, that within a certain distance of the Rauza e-Sharif, they would cover the train tracks with felt, like a carpet, so that it doesn’t make noise and sound. Because you are approaching the Holy Prophet (asws), and Allah says, ‘do not raise your voice in His presence.’ This was not by, like Saints, of course they are Sains, but they are not Spiritual people, these are architects too, like us. These are doctors and lawyers too. Like us. These are engineers too, like us. But they have that extra, they have that spirit. They are cooks too. They are artist, they are people who are very strong in also bringing out the material aspect of this dunya but they were not worshiping it. They were regular people. Like us. If we are not understanding them, we are not going to find our direction. We are going to find our direction with the sun is setting, in the west.

We are just slowly coming out of Colonialism. I mean we are out, maybe post-colonialism. Maybe, when we continue to wake up, we are going to understand what happened before colonialism. Because right after the Muslim lands we declared ourselves independent or rebelled against the Khalifah, we did not become free. We became the slaves of the unbelievers. We didn’t want to become servants to Allah, we became the slaves to the unbelievers. And the damage that they’ve inflicted, say in India or in the middle east, in the Balkans or SouthEast Asia, we are still feeling today. It doesn’t look like it’s going to go away for a very long time. You understand? Because we say we don’t want the shadow of Allah on earth, Allah is saying, ‘now you are going to shield under the shadow of your greatest enemy: Sheytan.’ We have no hatred and we have no problems with anyone. We are not saying we are hating the jews, or hating the Christians, or hating..No. there are things that are in their religion and their practice we don’t agree with. You can disagree without hatred. Of course you can. There are so many things, good qualities amongst them, of course there are. We are not going from one extreme to the other extreme. And we are understanding that the justice and the rights that America is offering to its people, you cannot find anywhere in this place of this earth that comes close to it. That in that way, this country is holding on to the Shariat of Allah stronger than so many countries in the world, including Muslim countries. Correct?

Can you sit down and make zikr in Muslim countries? In some Muslim countries, you cannot even established a place of worship without the government’s permission. In some Muslim countries, some countries they have big populations of Muslims, the government controls the majlis and they regulate everything. Imagine that they have a hundred masjid in that country, and every masjid recite the same khutba that the government has put down. What will the Christian say if that was put to their religion? What will the Buddhist say? What will the Jews say? What will the Hindus say? They are going to say this is completely unfair. This is unjust. But that has been happening to Muslim population and so many Muslim countries, for decades. Correct? We can make zikr here, we cannot make zikr in so many Muslim countries. So we understand that too. And our call is beyond Muslim, Christians or Jewish. Our call is people who believe in truth and the people who don’t believe in truth, people who believe in justice and those who don’t believe in justice.

Now, whatever that is happening here in America, it is beyond now, religion or race. People are slowly starting to wake up. And they say, we have to stand up for what is right. Now they are getting wiser and more intelligent. They are waking up. They are starting to know who is who, what is what, what is this law, what is this governor, what is this plan, everyone is from the slumber of decades that they make us to sleep, to be drugged, since the seventies, sixties there was the time when civil right movements was coming out, now they say you cannot have now this kind of people, every decade coming up trying to change things. The masons are saying, we have our own agenda. Give them drugs, give them rock and roll. Give them everything. Seventies huh. Give them sports. Big thing. You don’t see Muslim countries, whole country staying up, on the night of Laylatul Qadr to pray together, but you see whole country staying up to watch football or cricket. Correct? It’s okay if It’s happening to non-Muslims. It’s happening to Muslims. We lost our head or something? We are chasing after a stupid ball. Football is an empty ball.

Questioning, of course you have to question. If you don’t question, you don’t think, you will not get the answer. At that time people are just going to tell you what is what and you are going to follow. So they say, ‘give them all of this.’ Seventies, eighties, give them this. Nineties, give them this. And now, they say, ‘okay, give them the internet, give them the reality shows, give them everything.’ Now the sheytans are fighting with sheytan because one group of sheytan saying, ‘slow down,’ the other group of sheytan saying, ‘no, it’s now or never.’ So they are fighting. Same sheytan. You understand? But now, people who have some heart, they are going to wake up because they say, people who have intelligence it is not grayness, it is not grey. There is no confusion. People who have intelligence, they say, white is still white, black is still black, but they see how it’s being changed. They are not fooled. They are not confused but they see the confusion. Do you understand? Those who don’t have intelligence, they are going to say, ‘I don’t know which way to turn.’

Tarikat must teach you intelligence, spirituality must teach you intelligence. At least this is our own personal experience. Before we don’t know, now certain are shown, now we make the decision. So, yes, we are aware. So many things in this country is good. So many things in this country must be better, should be better. If this country is holding on to the ideals. But man, they can never become better if he doesn’t understand the mistakes that he has done. If, as a nation, we are not owning up to the mistakes that we have done and try to run to fix them, the rights that we have taken away from so many people, if we are not doing that, we are just condemned to just continue this. And it’s going to get worse. If we turn around and we say, ‘yes, we have done wrong, very big wrong to the original natives of this country. We have done big wrong say to the Africans that we have taken as slaves, and we put them in this country. If we admit that we have done wrong say to the Japanese of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that if we wake up and we say, ‘yes, we have done wrong to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran…da,da,da,da,da,da….’the list is ever increasing, right? Then we can make step forward. If not this is just going to continue. But it’s okay. We can say, because nobody is listening. And we have nothing. We don’t want anything. And we have nothing that they wanted anyway. This is for you and for me. It is part of Shariat, of Islam, whichever country that you belong to, you have to follow the laws of that country. It is a law for us to obey the laws of this country. We are doing it. Alhamdulillah. We are doing that more. So we should not be afraid. Tamam?

May Allah put justice in our hearts and in our actions. This is what we are teaching individually here, how you are going to treat each other, how you are going to speak to each other, how you are to watch the situations, not to take each other’s rights, this is what we are trying to teach. But don’t, when something is done to you, as Murids, you smile and you swallow, you try to digest it. You cannot, you come to me. If you try to solve it in other way, it will fall. It doesn’t work like that. Because we don’t ask for the rights, we ask that Allah forgives our rights on others. Isn’t that what we’ve been saying for the sejdah shukr that we are making. Insya’Allah, that time you will have more power and more strength and you are going to have more wisdom and more energy to keep doing your things, and you are not going to be stressed out whether people are going to praise you or they are going to curse you, because you know who you are doing it for. WaminAllahuTaufiq. Al-Fatiha. Amin.